What Is WestEd's English Language and Literacy Acceleration (ELLA)?

ELLA is a research-based professional development program that improves academic literacy instruction for pre-K through 8th grade students. ELLA meets the needs of English language learners, students with low-literacy skills, and other students who may experience difficulty mastering academic language.

What sets ELLA apart from other professional development providers?

ELLA adheres to the most current research-based recommendations for professional development that support effective implementation and result in increased student achievement. ELLA professional development promotes:

• Research-based practice: We integrate the most current research findings into our program to provide the rationale behind the teaching practices we share.
• Purposeful teaching: We share practical ways to accelerate academic literacy development and to provide equitable access to rigorous grade-level content.
• Collaborative planning:We facilitate collegial lesson-planning sessions with an emphasis on inquiry around practice and the integration of purposeful, research-based strategies.
• Intensive and sustained support: We build teachers' capacity to implement effective practices by incorporating in-class coaching and modeling, providing opportunities for practice, and giving constructive feedback on lesson delivery.

How does ELLA offer multiple layers of support to schools and districts?

Teachers:

• In our training for teachers, we include an intensive and thorough overview of the most current research-based instructional strategies.
• We model evidence-based, effective, and replicable instructional strategies in real classrooms with real kids.
• We coach teachers in implementing these rigorous strategies in their daily practice using a standards-based curriculum.

Instructional Coaches:

• We work with instructional coaches on strategies to support teachers and increase the rigor of instruction in systematic ways.

Principals/Administrators:

• We support principals in ensuring the successful and systematic implementation of effective instructional strategies in all classrooms.

District Staff:

• We work collaboratively with district staff to ensure that all services are aligned with the district vision for school and district improvement.